Author Topic: The Three Towns during wartime  (Read 22522 times)

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Offline Fester

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #30 on: March 01, 2011, 09:51:40 am »
I'm curious.  I wonder if the author of this piece has mixed up both Little and Great Orme gunnery sites?  This made me wonder:

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There were several observation posts around Conwy Bay to observe fall of shot and check the range was clear of shipping.

Now, observation posts in CB wouldn't even see where shot from the West Shore battery fell, but they would see shot from the Little Orme batteries.

Secondly, although some of the images are clearly Great Orme, the positioning of the big gun sits, plus the angle from which the shot was taken make me think they look suspiciously like the Little Orme sites.  And the shot with scaffolding, to which reference is made of the need for

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a harbour for target towing craft

tend to make me think that was the deep water cliff on the Little Orme, which has been eroding into the sea for some years, but which was once heavily concreted as a small harbour.


Ian, I think you might have mis-read it?
It says Conwy Bay,  not Colwyn Bay?

From what I have read, the floating target ship was indeed towed in to the Conwy Estuary.
Fester...
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Offline Ian

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #31 on: March 01, 2011, 10:24:25 am »
Quote
Ian, I think you might have mis-read it?
It says Conwy Bay,  not Colwyn Bay?

Dead right, Fester;  I'll blame the eye-site, I think....

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Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.


Offline Quiggs

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #32 on: March 01, 2011, 05:24:50 pm »
My parents retired to a flat by the Old Peoples Centre and when we had the floods in Llandudno all the family Photos and Documents, which they had in a suitcase at the bottom of their wardrobe, were contaminated with Sewage and had to be thrown away. So I do not have any from my childhood.   :(
Dictum Meum Pactum

Offline Fester

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #33 on: March 01, 2011, 05:45:45 pm »
But Quiggs, you have them all in your memories mate... and commiting them to paper might bring it all back... )*)&
Fester...
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Offline JasonW

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #34 on: March 01, 2011, 07:33:43 pm »
Request for Information:
I was wondering if we knew of any data on the P.O.W. Camp at Bryn Estyn in Deganwy during the last war .
One of the History of Deganwy group mebers has visted Bryn Estyn House and asked , and apparently there was .....Camp 119 , Pabo Hall , Bryn ESTYN
Sue from Llandudno Archives has asked the group to see if we have any information, or whether anyone remembers the site.
Apparently a son of one of the ex Italian Prisoners is visting from Australia in June, and he has asked for information.

Offline suepp

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #35 on: March 01, 2011, 08:42:48 pm »
I'm pretty sure there was a thread on Pabo Hall and another POW centre  in the old forum but can't remember any details about it or who posted them sorry

Offline dwsi

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Offline Trojan

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #37 on: March 02, 2011, 01:55:18 am »
excellent, do you know of any similar ifo / pics for the Little Orme gunsite?

This was the last surviving Little Orme gun emplacement:
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 01:57:18 am by Trojan »

Offline Trojan

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Re: American army
« Reply #38 on: March 02, 2011, 02:49:41 am »
I think it was later than that - probably 1944 - possibly 43.

I think you're right there Mike, it was definitely towards the end of WWII. They manned the gun emplacements on the Great & Little Orme's and helped run the Coast Artillery School.

They also brought quite a few vehicles with them - American tanks were often seen parked just off the Conway Road.

I don't believe they ever manned the artillery school as it was only used by British Coastal Artillery regiments that were being trained in searchlights, gunnery and radio skills.
I once was told that they took over Lady Forester's (now St Dunstan's) and used it as a field hospital but this might just be heresay.

Oh, so what was the purpose of American troops being billeted to Llandudno then? They frequented a place named The Donut Dugout, which was an establishment in Vaughan Street, which catered to the US force.

Here is part of a biography of a nurse from US Army 297th General Hospital Unit:

" It seemed in no time at all after receiving our notification to join the 297th General Hospital that we found ourselves burdened with 40 pound field packs and struggling up the gang plank of the Queen Elizabeth on Memorial Day weekend of 1944 (date of embarkation, May 30, 1944). I would not describe this trip as exactly a pleasure cruise! We were packed in like sardines: 10,000 battle ready troops and 75 nurses! Despite tight security in rerouting our troop transport train from New Jersey and boarding ship after midnight as a large security secret, we sailed from New York Harbor at high noon on Memorial Day 1944 with all New York standing dockside on the bright clear sunny day to wave “goodbye” to our troop laden ship! (By now we were sure that all Germany knew we were on the way.)

Unfortunately, we hit stormy weather in the mid-Atlantic with gale winds as we neared the Irish Sea. It seemed like a sheer miracle when we safely arrived at Gourock, Scotland, hours before dawn broke through the mist on 6 June 1944. We waited on deck for hours in a cold light drizzle to be taken off the ship by tender and put ashore. We were all deeply grateful to the British Red Cross volunteers waiting for us dockside in the “wee” hours of the morning with sandwiches and hot coffee.

Soon after we disembarked, we boarded a train for our destination in Llandudno, North Wales where we would spend the next few days awaiting and assembling our medical supplies. It was at our Llandudno stop-off when we first learned of the Normandy invasion and [Operation Overlord]. Again, another long train ride across Wales and the cold grey English countryside to Stourbridge on the Severn River, our final destination in the midlands of England."

Obviously this doesn't explain the soldiers with tanks! However I believe that in the build up to D-Day, American and Canadian troops and equipment were shipped over to the UK in huge numbers and they had to dock ships on the West Coast from Liverpool to Scotland well away from interception by German Planes getting wind of the huge army gathering.  Llandudno was probably being used as a stop off for a while before moving South.


Below is a photo of American servicemen (with a female sitting on the right) in The Donut Dugout, Vaughan Street.

Offline Trojan

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #39 on: March 02, 2011, 04:18:49 am »
The Royal Artillery, 21st Coast Battery, Coast Artillery School pictured on Llandudno's Oval:

Offline suepp

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #40 on: March 02, 2011, 10:45:33 am »
Llandudno Home Guard


Offline DaveR

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Offline Ian

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #42 on: March 03, 2011, 07:05:43 am »
I found No. 6 rather amusing:

"No person shall trawl, dredge, touch or search or otherwise interfere with any shot, shell, bomb. bullet or any other projectile...or be in possession of any shot, shell, bomb. bullet or any other projectile"

So that's the church lucky dip done for, then :-)))
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Trojan

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #43 on: March 05, 2011, 05:29:25 am »
 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Offline DaveR

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Re: The Three Towns during wartime
« Reply #44 on: March 05, 2011, 07:29:41 pm »
Whilst at the Gunsites the other day, I took this photo inside what I later learnt (from looking at the map) was the Engine Room. Does this mean Engines as in Generators for the Floodlights etc or something else?